


Homecoming

by Mystradigans



Series: Home is a person, not a place [1]
Category: The Bold Type
Genre: F/F, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Homophobia, Sad and Sweet, and she just loves kat so much and kat loves her and ahhhh im too gay for this, and things just escalated from there lol, i just love adena so much, i love kat too dont get me wrong, kinda inspired by the episode where kats dad asks about adenas parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 13:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15753054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystradigans/pseuds/Mystradigans
Summary: After a loss in the family, Adena must go back to Iran. Of course, Kat will be with her- through thick and thin. And when grief is mixed with homophobia and misogyny from Adena's family, it seems Kat's devotion will be tested to the upmost.





	Homecoming

The phone rings. Adena’s mobile to be specific, and when she looks down at it Kat sees her expression morph into confusion.

 

“It’s my brother” Adena says aloud, more to herself than to Kat, and picks it up abruptly. She answers in Persian, and though Kat has no idea what she’s saying, her tone of voice tells her it’s not something good. The conversation is short, and when her brother hangs up, Adena is left frozen in her place, still clutching the phone.

 

“What happened?” Kat asks, gently taking the phone from Adena before she had the chance to drop it. Adena sways on the spot, and Kat hastily leads her to the couch.

 

“My… my Madar-Bozorg… my grandma.The only member of my family who didn’t turn away from me” Adena says in a tight voice. “She had a stroke yesterday. No-one bothered telling me until now I suppose” she trails off. “She’s in hospital. She’s, she’s not going to make it, Kat. I have to get back to Iran, fast”

 

“I’ll come with you” Kat tells her, straight away. Somehow, seeing Adena on the verge of falling apart seems to be enabling her to hold it together much more than she normally can in a crisis. “Which airport is the closest to your hometown?”

 

 

***

 

 

A few hours later, they’re on a flight to Jiroft. Kat had booked first class on the earliest flight possible; she had airmiles amounting to most of the cost and she had figured more privacy was probably for the better. She had thought right: Adena had broken down in tears in the taxi down to the airport and hasn’t stopped for more than a few minutes at a time since. Kat rubs her shoulder over and over, feeling useless. Without the ability to use their phones while flying, they have no idea whether they’ll make it in time or whether Adena’s grandma will be gone by the time they land.

 

 

 

They don’t make it. When Adena’s phone regains signal, she gets a ‘Welcome to Iran’ text from her mobile network, and a text from her brother saying that Haideh El-Amin had passed away. Kat wraps Adena in her arms and holds her close. Then, she hails a cab and Adena gives the driver the address of her childhood home.

 

 

***

 

 

As they pull up outside the house, Kat is struck by the realisation that she’s about to meet Adena’s parents. Adena knocks, and Kat barely has time to brace herself and make sure that all of her masses of curly hair is covered by the headscarf she borrowed when the door swings open. A young man, probably a little younger than Kat, with Adena’s almond-shaped eyes and an attempt at a beard, stands before them.

 

“Adena” he says, hovering awkwardly.

 

“Afshin” Adena replies in the same tone. “Kat, this is my brother Afshin. Afshin this is my… my roommate Kat”.

 

Afshin raises his eyebrows in a manner that Kat takes to mean that he knows exactly who she is and shuffles on the spot. “You should come in” he says eventually. Then he says something to Adena in Persian and Adena replies. Kat shoots her a questioning look, but she merely shakes her head.

 

“My Madar, aunts and female cousins are washing the body” she mutter a second later, when Afshin is out of earshot. “And my loving little brother has advised me to stay away. Says only _proper_ female relatives are allowed in the room, not halfways. Which is what I am, according to them, because I’m a lesbian.”

 

She shakes her head in anger and turns to Kat. “I’m going in anyway, I have the right to. But you don’t, would you mind waiting outside her room?  I’m… I’m sorry-”

 

“It’s fine” Kat says quickly. She takes Adena’s hand and squeezes it tight, glancing first around the hallway to make sure they’re not being watched. “Take all the time you need, my love”

 

Adena nods, gulps, and heads down the corridor and through a doorway Kat assumes was her grandmother’s. Kat is left on her own in Adena’s childhood home, and she stares down at the ornate rug underneath her feet without really seeing it. After what could have been a few minutes or an hour, her phone buzzes and, waking up momentarily from the foggy nightmare her brain seems to have been clouded with since Adena got the call from her brother, she remembers that she hasn’t told anyone where she’s going. Her phone has reset its clock to Iranian time, and reads 21:37, but she has no idea what time it might be in New York. She has no real concept of how long she’s been awake, or even what time it was that they left the flat; her brain seems to have blocked out everything other than getting Adena home to her family.

 

She glances at the text. _Sutton <3: Hey, do you and Adena wanna get dinner with Richard and me tonight? Tiny Jane is being boring and finishing an article :/_

How is she supposed to respond to that? She wants desperately to tell Sutton everything that’s happened, and she knows that Sutton wouldn’t mind, but where to even start? She begins and deletes a few different responses but can barely get past the first word before getting stuck on what to say, how to convey what she’s feeling when she has barely had time to consider that herself. She’s saved from the dilemma, however, by a line of women filing out of the room Adena had disappeared into- followed by Adena herself who hangs a little back from the group.

A stout, middle-aged lady at the front notices Kat and her eyebrows shoot up. Kat raises an arm pathetically in a half wave and does her best to smile. The lady’s eyes narrow. “Who are you?” she asks, in a heavily accented voice.

 

“ _Amme,_ this is Kat” Adena says, before Kat can reply. She has stopped crying, Kat notices, but her eyes are red and her lips tight. “My room-mate”

 

The lady, who Kat assumes is an Aunt, says something in Persian and Adena flinches. There’s a muffled sob from another of the women and she rushes out of the corridor as if she has been bitten. The remaining women glare accusingly at Kat and Adena, as if it was their fault before sweeping past them and up the staircase.

 

As soon as they’re alone again, Adena collapses into Kats arms and cries. It’s all Kat can do to hold her as another wave of grief hits. Kat never had a close relationship with any of her grandparents; they had all passed away by the time she turned 4, and so far she’s been lucky enough never to have experienced the death of someone she really loved. But it’s obvious that Adena loved her grandma deeply, and this was probably made even more significant by her tense relationship with the rest of her family.

 

“We should go after my Madar” Adena sighs eventually, tilting her head up to meet Kat’s eyes.

 

“The lady who ran out?” guesses Kat. “That was your mom?”

 

Adena nods. “My Amme called me a deviant. That was why Madar left. They all blame her for my flaming lesbianism.”

 

Her voice sounds bitter but her facial expression conveys pride; her chin raised as if in defiance against her family and her red-rimmed eyes suddenly steely. Kat remembers what her Dad had said when he met Adena _‘Why is she so obsessed with labelling herself? What were_ her _parents like?’,_ and thinks she perhaps understands now. Adena’s dual Muslim-lesbian identity seems to gives her strength against hostility from all sides: allowing her to turn her family’s shame into a symbol of power.

 

They find Adena’s _Madar_ in the kitchen, being held by a tall man Kat assumes is Adena’s dad. He is stroking her hair, and their closeness reminds Kat somewhat of herself and Adena. He startles when he sees them, and they both look up.

 

“Adena” Adena’s Madar says heavily. Adena interrupts her before she can continue.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she chokes. “As soon as she had the stroke, why wasn’t I told? Why did you leave it to _Afshin?_ ”

 

Her mother frowns. “It… was not appropriate and it was not necessary. Your presence upsets your father and aunts and they didn’t need even more upset on top of losing their mother”

 

“ _I’m_ upset!” Adena shouts, and Kat glances at her nervously. She’s not sure if she should be stepping in to defend or comfort Adena or staying out of it. “ _I_ loved her too! How dare you keep me away because of who I am?”

 

Now her father was shouting. “You bring her! You embarrass me, you bring shame to your mother after all we have done for you-“

 

“Enough” Adena’s mother says sharply. “You should not have brought your… your ‘roommate’ Adena. That was selfish. But there’s nothing to be done about it now. I suggest you find somewhere to stay tonight”

 

 

***

 

 

Because Muslim burial must take place within 24 hours of death, the funeral is the next morning. Kat hasn’t slept, having spent the night in a damp motel lying silently awake next to Adena, who couldn’t seem to speak or sleep either. Perhaps this is why the service seems so surreal; Kat is vaguely aware that she has taken her shoes off and is standing beside Adena. The funeral-goers are split into three lines: men, children and women, and they’re chanting Arabic prayers while raising their arms. Kat stays silent, head down, and lets the dreamlike feeling wash over her. Haideh’s body lays at the front in a shroud, and Kat morbidly reflects that she must have been _tiny._

The crowd fall silent after the final prayer, and Adena’s father and another man Kat assumes is a relation lift up the body and take it out of a mosque, to where a hearse is waiting. The men and boys file out, but the women remain: Adena had explained that women did not normally go into burial grounds. Instead, they return to Adena’s family home where food is already slow-cooking on the stove- food provided by friends and neighbours of the family, who, it seems, have turned up in their masses to support the bereaved.

Two of Adena’s aunts busy themselves with food preparation and the other women mill around the kitchen, talking quietly. Here is the first part of the whole proceedings that didn’t feel regulated; there are none of the rules or ceremonies of that had dictated the last two days. Kat wonders whether part of Adena’s reckless abandon in life is a rebellion against the customs and traditions her family seem to revolve around. But when the sound of the front door signals the men’s return, it brings with it a return to order.

 

The food is laid out and the guests stand around the table while prayers are recited. Once they begin eating, conversation for the first 10 minutes or so is quiet, and the guests speak in Persian- though Kat gathers from the odd word she recognises that they are sharing memories of Adena’s grandmother. Kat and Adena eat in silence; Kat enjoying the hitherto-unexplored taste of Iranian cuisine whilst Adena cautiously identifies and samples the few vegetarian dishes. 15 minutes in, however, one of Adena’s cousins turns away from her husband to address Kat.

 

“So” she says loudly, drawing the attention of the entire table. “You are Adena’s… roommate?”

 

Kat blanches. “Yes”

 

The rest of the group, excluding Adena and her parents, erupt into titters of harsh laughter.

 

“Hmm… very good… only a roommate? Nothing… else?”

 

After glancing at Adena helplessly, Kat swallows hard and nods.

 

The cousin smiles in a manner that reminds Kat a bit too much of a shark. “This is good… _Alhamdulillah,_ because you see Kat, Adena _used_ to be a sinning de-“

 

“ENOUGH” snaps Adena, standing up. Immediately, a barrage of shouts come in response; forks are dropped, and a glass of water is upturned as Adena’s family stand up and begin screaming at her. Kat gets up too, unsure what else to do although she doesn’t reckon anyone will listen if she tries to say something.

 

“I AM _NOT_ A ‘SINNING’ ANYTHING, I AM A LESBIAN AND A PROUD SERVANT OF ALLAH AND IT IS NOT FOR _YOU_ TO JUDGE ME” Adena is yelling, her face beetroot red. “AND _NO,_ KAT ISN’T MY ROOMMATE, SHE IS MY _GIRLFRIEND_ AND ONE DAY SHE’LL BE MY WIFE”

 

Kat almost falls back into her seat in shock. Did Adena mean that? Did she really want to marry her, or was she just using the idea as a weapon in the heat of an argument? Kat had never even considered that as an option, assuming that the postmodern, bohemian lifestyle Adena had led in Paris and her subsequent openness to polyamory meant that Adena simply wasn’t the marrying type. But she also knew that labels and identifiers were important to Adena, and surely being Kat’s _wife_ could be an identity…

 

Kat is shaken from her marriage crisis by Adena grabbing her face and kissing her fiercely, to ever-more-enraged shouts from her family. They share a moment of eye contact in which Adena’s defensive expression seems to melt, and then the sound of breaking glass as another cup of water is thrown- this time deliberately- far too close to Kat’s head wakes her up to the danger they’re in.

 

“Umm.. run?” she suggests, and Adena seems to realise that this is a good idea. They leg it out of the house, down the street, and to the relative safety of the motel.

 

***

 

 

The plane ride back isn’t leaving for another 5 hours, and Adena wants to see the grave before they go, so Kat finds herself kneeling in the cemetery beside her girlfriend later that afternoon. To say she’s nervous wouldn’t cut it, but Adena is convinced that her family, however angry and ashamed they might be, is not capable of being truly violent and Kat trusts her judgement. They’ve Skyped Jane and Sutton to let them know what has been going on, and Adena says she’ll call her Madar in a few days to apologise for making a scene.

 

“It’s not right, but I do make it harder for her” she’d told Kat with a sad smile, when Kat had expressed her outrage that Adena should be the one to apologise. “And I can say sorry for the repercussions she’ll get from my Aunts without meaning that I’m sorry for who I am”

 

Now she places one hand on the bare headstone that marks her grandmother’s grave. “Goodbye, Madar-Bozorg. I love you”

 

“What was she like?” asks Kat, realising with some surprise that even after spending the last two days commemorating her, she has no idea.

 

Adena smiles, still staring at the grave. “She was… warm. And kind. She’d tell my parents to leave me alone when they shouted at me and made me her special _Bāmiyeh_ \- like syrupy doughballs- when I was upset. When my family found out I was gay, she… well she wasn’t fully accepting of it, but she said that only God can judge, and still wrote to me when I was in Paris. And she was the only one who supported my art, she thought it was beautiful and always said she was so proud of me…”

 

Kat smiles. “She sounds wonderful. I’m glad you had her in your life”

 

“Me too” Adena says. She kisses Kat lightly on the nose, breaking into a wide smile when Kat giggles. “And I’m glad I have you in my life too. I love you, Kat”

 

“I love you too”. Kat tells her. “…So… about that wife thing?”

**Author's Note:**

> I was so motivated to write this after your amazing comments on my first fic for this pairing, Muse, so thank you so much! In particular, the people who commented that they would like to see something longer seem to have subconsciously influenced me, because this ended up being like 4 times the length! Did you mean quite that long or is this like a 'be careful what you wish for' situation and you all fell asleep halfway through?  
> Comments and feedback are very very very welcome lmao, and pls let me know if there's anything I've got wrong about Muslim or Iranian culture because although I've now spent wayyyy too long on the internet trying to research them, I'm definitely no expert  
> \- Emily <3


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